In Japan, many companies, including SMEs, are promoting activities to
contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On the other hand,
business succession in Japanese SMEs has become a major challenge, and business succession
in companies that promote sustainable management is more difficult than in companies that do
not, as it requires managers to take a broader view of management. In this study, we conducted
empirical research on whether SMEs that focus on sustainable management can achieve business
succession by using BSC, and whether they can also establish the SECI model through this
approach and grow into enterprises where employees create knowledge autonomously. As a
result, four initiatives include the introduction of SBSC made it possible to increase the level of
active knowledge creation and achieve business succession through the SECI model. And the
SECI survey quantitatively revealed that behavioral changes and mindset changes occurred.
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